February provides an opportunity for so many potential restaurant marketing ideas.
But why am I mentioning February rather than January? Here’s why:
One thing I like about RestaurantNews.com is the full list of marketing days they publish.
But you could make a really strong argument that they publish their list way too close to the actual month, not giving you near enough time to think through, plan for, train your staff for, and adequately publicize, a marketing promotion that capitalizes on their list of ideas.
So check out Scott Roberts’ complete listing of national food days. You’ve got the full year, right there in one list.
You could make another really strong argument that the RestaurantNews.com list isn’t really a list of “marketing ideas,” as the title indicates. It’s just list of “days” that you could build a marketing promotion around — but you’ve got to come up with the actual idea.
There’s a big difference, isn’t there?
With all that now said, let me give you a quick list of four starter ideas that you can kick around with plenty of time to finalize and publicize.
February 24 is National Tortilla Chip Day.
Advantage #1 of choosing this day for a promotion is that it’s a Wednesday — a traditional weak day for restaurants.
Advantage #2 of choosing this day is that, if you’re willing to be flexible, you can take consumers’ minds beyond the tortilla chip to include tortillas in general, and several promotional ideas spring to mind.
- If you’re a brewery or sports bar that serves no food — why not offer one day where people can bring their own tortilla chips and salsa? It’s Bring Your Own Tortilla Chips & Salsa Day.
- If you already make fresh tortillas on-site but it’s behind the scenes, bring that process out in the open for the day. Let kids watch and enjoy free samples.
- If you offer any form of crusted chicken or fish, could you offer an alternative that’s tortilla chip-crusted ? Or maybe a tortilla chip casserole?
- If you currently only offer traditional flour or wheat tortillas, could you whip up an LTO featuring a gluten-free concoction, like a spinach tortilla?
Encourage people to share photos of their meals and their dining experience at your location via Instagram or Twitter. Focus their efforts with a specific hashtag and feature them in your own social media streams or at your website.
What other thoughts do you have on how to capitalize on lesser-known, less-featured, informal national holidays for your restaurant marketing promotions?
